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does that SG have some kind of fuzz/distortion/boost pedal installed in it?

Well, have contacted rod vaughan from rv guitars who used to work for birch in the '70's and in his opinion the body cavity/pickup work definately is not by birch as its too crude.However the guitar is likely to have had some work on the neck in the early '70's - ie refret, levelling (the nut is metal so it could have been that) and at that time any guitars recieving work would have had the "john birch" decal applied (he reckons at that time they would have been applied to most guitars that had work done to promote the company).
So from a resto point of view, it's an easy decision now, i'll get the body back to original (i think the bridge pup is the original one anyway but inserted upside down - is there anyway of dating these pups?).
Not sure if i'll respray it until summer but it has polished up reasonably nice, with a nice crazing effect here and there.

The neck has cleaned up ok and the frets i'll get checked out by my local shop, string her up and away to go.
Taylornut btw, great thread on your musicmaster restoration!!

if i were you i wouldn't bother respraying the body- it's a shitload of work to do it properly and it looks fine as is (from what i can see of the pictures anyway). new guard, back to stock, BOOM. bob's yer mother's brother.

stewart wrote:if i were you i wouldn't bother respraying the body- it's a shitload of work to do it properly and it looks fine as is (from what i can see of the pictures anyway). new guard, back to stock, BOOM. bob's yer mother's brother.

Agreed, i like the aged worn look to be honest - cool as fook!

That neck looks really nice.

like the others, i can't stress enough how much you should leave this guitar alone. a new pickguard is all you have to have to bring your better-condition-than-most vintage bronco back to a classy life.

refinish, nah. that's a better red than most of the ones i see. looks more fiesta/orangish than the bright whitish bronco/dakota reds i usually see. that's great.

hotrodperlmutter wrote:like the others, i can't stress enough how much you should leave this guitar alone. a new pickguard is all you have to have to bring your better-condition-than-most vintage bronco back to a classy life.

refinish, nah. that's a better red than most of the ones i see. looks more fiesta/orangish than the bright whitish bronco/dakota reds i usually see. that's great.

Yeh, i'm leaving it alone now, it's cleaned up way better than i expected.
I've got a new white pickguard on the way - all i need is a tuner and a trem arm, happy days!

New pickguard arrived so spent the afternoon fitting it and it's a real good fit so well pleased.
I think the pickup is knackered though - before i fitted the new PG i strung it up with the old "birch" modded one and the neck pup was fine (sounded very weird and tinny almost out of phase but the bridge didn't work) .
So i'll have to drop in one of my spare bullet pups (apparently they were mustang stock anyways).
I have had an email from a guy that worked with birch in the early 70's and it does seem like its all his work including the poor routing and the modding dates from about 1970 - that makes the tele pup vintage too i suppose.

Looks great. Nice save.

MUCH better!!!

Pacafeliz wrote:MUCH better!!!

+1

Happy ending!

Yes happy now, the guitar cost me 250gbp to buy, i think that was a bargain or does anyone think it was high considering the work done to customise the body?

Nah, i think that's a great price.